MUMBAI: ED has temporarily attached commercial properties worth Rs 10.6 crore in Dubai owned by the late bitcoin fraud suspect Amit Bhardwaj as part of a money laundering probe. It has asked Dubai officials to prevent any transaction involving these assets.
It had earlier attached a Juhu residence and a bungalow in Pune, along with equity shares, collectively worth around Rs 100 crore of actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in the same case. There are allegations that Kundra received 285 bitcoins (valued at Rs 150 crore) from Amit to establish a bitcoin mining operation in Ukraine.
ED has so far seized assets worth Rs 172 crore.
In 2023, it arrested Simpy Bhardwaj, Nitin Gaur and Nikhil Mahajan. Following Amit’s death in 2022, ED indicated that Ajay was the orchestrator who had withheld information about bitcoin wallet addresses still under probe; he is still on the run.
The money laundering probe commenced following multiple police complaints in Maharashtra and Delhi against Variable Tech, Amit, Ajay and others. The accused allegedly collected funds in bitcoins worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017, promising investors monthly returns of 10%. These bitcoins were intended for mining operations, but the organisers conned investors and concealed the illegally obtained bitcoins in hidden online wallets.
